Lahori paa jee
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The brother of a British man due to be executed in Pakistan on Sunday staged an 11th hour protest yesterday outside the Oxford Union, where the country's president, General Pervez Musharraf, was speaking.
Amjad Hussain's brother Mirza is due to be executed despite having had a murder conviction quashed. Yesterday he joined members of Amnesty International to call on Gen Musharraf to intervene as he arrived to deliver a speech on modern-day Pakistan.
Gen Musharraf gave protesters the thumbs up and Mr Hussain said he was optimistic that the general would act.
"He knows who I am and he looked at me and gave me the thumbs-up," said Mr Hussain. "This is an 11th hour protest for President Musharraf to step in and stop an innocent man going to the gallows. The world is watching. This is a chance for the president to show he is a progressive, modern leader. I'm sure he will not let us down." He said his brother had been in jail in Pakistan for 18 years and had "lost the prime of his youth behind bars" for a crime of which he had been cleared.
Mirza Hussain, a former Territorial Army soldier from Leeds, was accused of killing a taxi driver, whom he claimed tried to sexually assault him at gunpoint in 1988. He was acquitted by the Lahore high court, but then convicted again by Pakistan's federal Sharia court.
The case has been described as "riddled with discrepancies" and the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, has appealed to President Musharraf to halt the execution.
Mr Hussain said: "President Musharraf has the power to intervene. He needs to act fast."
During his speech the president ducked the issue of the alleged "disappearance" of terror suspects arrested in his homeland, instead focusing on the need to combat international terrorism.
Amnesty International has alleged hundreds of terror suspects arrested in Pakistan are being tortured and illegally transferred into US custody in return for money. Campaigners called on Gen Musharraf to reveal the fate of the "disappeared". Amnesty also wants a list of detention centres in Pakistan and a register of all those held on suspicion of terror offences. It claims many terror suspects are sold to the US by bounty hunters.
Confronted on the Amnesty claims as he left the debating chamber the president offered no comment.
Source
Amjad Hussain's brother Mirza is due to be executed despite having had a murder conviction quashed. Yesterday he joined members of Amnesty International to call on Gen Musharraf to intervene as he arrived to deliver a speech on modern-day Pakistan.
Gen Musharraf gave protesters the thumbs up and Mr Hussain said he was optimistic that the general would act.
"He knows who I am and he looked at me and gave me the thumbs-up," said Mr Hussain. "This is an 11th hour protest for President Musharraf to step in and stop an innocent man going to the gallows. The world is watching. This is a chance for the president to show he is a progressive, modern leader. I'm sure he will not let us down." He said his brother had been in jail in Pakistan for 18 years and had "lost the prime of his youth behind bars" for a crime of which he had been cleared.
Mirza Hussain, a former Territorial Army soldier from Leeds, was accused of killing a taxi driver, whom he claimed tried to sexually assault him at gunpoint in 1988. He was acquitted by the Lahore high court, but then convicted again by Pakistan's federal Sharia court.
The case has been described as "riddled with discrepancies" and the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, has appealed to President Musharraf to halt the execution.
Mr Hussain said: "President Musharraf has the power to intervene. He needs to act fast."
During his speech the president ducked the issue of the alleged "disappearance" of terror suspects arrested in his homeland, instead focusing on the need to combat international terrorism.
Amnesty International has alleged hundreds of terror suspects arrested in Pakistan are being tortured and illegally transferred into US custody in return for money. Campaigners called on Gen Musharraf to reveal the fate of the "disappeared". Amnesty also wants a list of detention centres in Pakistan and a register of all those held on suspicion of terror offences. It claims many terror suspects are sold to the US by bounty hunters.
Confronted on the Amnesty claims as he left the debating chamber the president offered no comment.
Source
